The Sakalu Janula Samme demanding the separate statehood for Telangana reached the twenty first day, today, in the Telangana parts of Andhra Pradesh. The state transport employees union NMU is to conduct a shirtless protest infront of their respective depots, in the region today. The four-decade-old demand for Telangana, which seeks to carve out of the economically less developed part of Andhra Pradesh, gathered momentum last year after the Congress-led UPA Government accepted the demand in principle.

Elsewhere in New Delhi leaders of the Telangana regional political outfit Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) on Sunday pressed their demand for the creation of a separate state of Telangana as they paid homage to Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi on his 142nd birth anniversary here.  TRS chief K. Chandrasekhar Rao held a sit-in at Rajghat in support of his demand for the creation of a new Telangana state and said the agitation on the issue will continue till the goal is achieved. Speaking at the protest TRS leader KT Rama Rao said the government had promised in both the Houses of Parliament two years ago that Telangana would be made as the 29th state of India, but they are yet to fulfill their promise.

In Hyderabad, Azad said consultations with the elected representatives of all three regions of Andhra Pradesh -- Telangana, coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema, were completed but there was need for more consultations on the issue at the national level. Azad appealed to government employees in Telangana to call off their strike, saying it was causing inconvenience to people.

Telangana Employees Joint Action Committee Chairman Swamy Goud condemned the use of paramilitary forces by the government to crush down the peaceful protests carried out by the TRS leaders and other supporters, following the footsteps of Mahatma Gandhi.

Meanwhile Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said on Saturday that the government was aware of the gravity of the ongoing agitation in Andhra Pradesh's Telangana region and needed some more time to find a solution to the vexed issue. Congress leaders from Telangana are also pressing their leadership for an early decision in favour of creating a new state.